Apple rarely makes statements on issues outside of the tech world, but when it does, it's usually on issues pertaining to the LGBT community. Today, as CNBC reports, Apple joined more than 80 companies in signing a letter condemning Arizona's bill SB1062, which now faces a possible veto by Governor Jan Brewer. Apple's public criticism has a special meaning for Arizona as the Cupertino giant is on the verge of opening a sapphire glass facility in the state that will create around 2,000 new jobs.

Back in November we reported that an iOS-integrated hearing aid could be on the way, and now it's here. The new device is called the ReSound LiNX, and its iOS integration allows users to listen to music and talk on the phone in addition to its standard hearing aid duties.

Ever wondered what a Steve Jobs statue would look like? If you have, it's quite possible it doesn't look anything like the bust of the Apple co-founder that was unveiled in Belgrade, Serbia today. The statue, picked from more than 10,000 entries in a competition, was sculpted by Serbian native Dragan Radenovic. Once completed, it will greet vistors to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California.

An update for iOS 7 should appear in the Settings tab of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch today, but it's not the iOS 7.1 update you're probably hoping for. Instead, it's a rather innocuous 35.4 MB download for the iPhone 5s that simply fixes the SSL connection verification.

One of the persistent (if odd) rumors that's been floating around lately is that Apple plans to buy the Tesla motor company as a part of its supposed drive to create the "iCar," but if it does, Tesla isn't telling. Yet in an interview with Bloomberg today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk did confirm that the motor company had "conversations" with Apple, but he wasn't specific as to what these concerned.

Maintaining the privacy of users has always been a major concern at Apple, to the point that it's apparently affecting the success of the Cupertino giant's iAd business, reports AdAge. Ad buyers say Apple is "downright stingy" with its customer information, and that it has no real drive to "foster relationships."

It's often said that we live in a "post-PC" world, but few reports verify the truth of that statement quite like analyst Benedict Evans' recent research. During the holiday quarter, according to Evans, Apple achieved higher sales numbers with combined sales of iPhones, iPads, iPod Touch units, and Macs than were achieved by the global Windows PC industry. It also marks the first time Apple has outdone PCs in terms of hardware sales.

When you bought your last iPhone, did you throw the last one into a kitchen drawer and forget about it? If so, you're not the only one. According to OnePoll's "Mobile Mountain Study" for SellCell.com conducted last month (via Cult of Mac), around 50 percent of Americans are hanging on to their old iPhones, which means that around $13.4 billion in usable inventory is just sitting around going to waste.

It's that time of the iPhone development cycle again. The alleged first images of the prototype for the new iPhone 6 are gracing the pages of MacRumors today, and yes, they're shot in the same blurry style normally reserved for shots of UFOs and Bigfoot. The pics came in from an anonymous source on Twitter, and according to Sonny Dickson (who sent out some of the best pre-release photos of the iPhone 5s), they originate from a source in China.

Through my tireless efforts to find new and interesting topics with which to entertain you each week, I happen across lots of patents. Some are absurd, many are dull and dense, but for the most part, the one thing they have in common is that they're nearly impossible to extrapolate.

Still, they make for fascinating reading. At the very least, it's a peek into the Cupertino development process, a rare chance to see what the company is working on between revolutions. For example, in December, Apple was granted a patent for a "Curved touch sensor" that consists of "depositing and patterning a conductive thin film on a flexible substrate to form at least one touch sensor pattern, while the flexible substrate is in a flat state and wherein the flexible substrate is a glass substrate." (Honestly, that was the clearest description I could find.)